Over the course of a glorious summer when it hardly ever seemed to rain, any flaws in your conservatory must have seemed quite inconsequential. After all, there won’t be any water dripping in when there’s a drought.

However, now we are into autumn, the time for any complacency has passed. It is not just that September brought a bit more rain (some places up in the north had a very wet month), or the fact that there will soon be lots of brown and orange leaves landing on your conservatory roof, but the fact that we are now into storm season.

This means that if you have any minor damage to your conservatory, high winds could make it worse, making small faults and holes into big ones. And if you have any potential leaks, you can be sure that a deluge of rain will find them.

Quite simply, now is the time to get your conservatory repairs done, before the storms make everything so much worse.

The Storm Season Starts As Amy Takes Aim

As if to highlight the importance of being ready for some very different weather from the sizzling summer, the Met Office now puts out a pre-emptive list of named storms at the start of each autumn and winter storm season.

How many actually take place varies from year to year. Last autumn and winter (2024-25) there were six storms, which made it a much milder season than 2023-24, when there were 12, but worse than 2022-23, when there were only two.

What we do know is that the 2025-26 tally is already standing at one. Storm Amy has greeted the start of October in fearsome style, her fury being mainly borne by the north and west as high winds and heavy rain have come sweeping in from the Atlantic.

Affected areas received yellow warnings, or even orange (indicating danger to life) in the case of the wind warning for the northern Highlands. Southern England has escaped with milder conditions.

From Vampires To Violent Winds

When Amy will be followed by storm Bram is an unanswered question. Given that Bram Stoker wrote the novel Dracula, it might be appropriate for that one to wait until October 31st, but then again, it may not be nearly so long. Moreover, it may be the south of England that is hit harder next time. Chandra and Dave will then be awaiting their turns.

The number and severity of storms, as well as which areas are worst hit, will all remain to be seen, but this is simply no time to take chances. At the same time, while you are taking steps to get small gaps, loose windows, peeling sealant and cracks fixed before a big storm makes them worse, now could be the time to go further and make more improvements.

A common gripe about conservatories is that they are not very good at handling extremes of weather anyway, and not just one-off events like a storm.

Sometimes they have the more straightforward problem of being too hot in summer and too cold in winter. Indeed, you may have just experienced the first of these and could soon face the second. The first may be aided by installing blinds or applying transparent tinted material onto the windows, but the second might need more substantial work.

What Causes Cold Conservatories In Winter?

The National Energy Foundation (NEF) has noted that this is a common problem with a separated conservatory, which it defines as one that is separated from the rest of the house by a “quality external door”. This is distinct from a non-separated conservatory in that its internal temperature is different from that of the house to which it is attached.

Part of the consideration for the NEF is maintaining temperature in the house, which could simply mean keeping the conservatory separate to avoid losing heat through the windows on cold days. However, it notes that this is not always practical.

Therefore, what is better for the conservatory is to have windows that are double-glazed and insulated. This will enable the conservatory to stay warm in winter.

In addition, the NEF warned that conservatories that are more than ten years old may be more likely to have been built without good insulation in mind, while old ones that are not in a good state may have to be pulled down completely and replaced.

Hopefully, it won’t come to that, and with some sensible TLC, repairs to any obvious problems and the addition of insulation if necessary, you will have a conservatory that is ready for all the challenges of the months ahead, from generally lower temperatures to any fierce storms that come blowing in from the Atlantic across southern England.